Top Science News

August 27, 2026

Top Headlines

AI Searched 100 Million Possibilities and Found a Cheaper Way to 3D-print a NASA Rocket Alloy

Aug. 27, 2026 Researchers used AI to search through more than 100 million possible settings for 3D-printing a high-performance NASA alloy. After only 40 experiments, the system identified six successful ...

“I Jumped from My Chair” – Astronomers Spot Betelgeuse’s Hidden Companion

Aug. 27, 2026 Astronomers have captured their clearest image yet of Betelgeuse’s long-suspected companion, potentially ending a search that lasted about 100 years. The surprisingly massive hidden star could help ...

Your Dislike of Eating Bugs May Be 9,000 Years Old

Aug. 27, 2026 Ancient teeth and human DNA are revealing a surprising history of insect eating. Modern humans in northern Eurasia appear to have eaten insects only occasionally, while Neanderthals may have consumed them much more regularly. Populations near the ...

Eating More Ultra-processed Foods May Raise Prostate Cancer Risk by 30%

Aug. 27, 2026 Ultra-processed foods make up a huge share of the American diet, and new research suggests they may carry another serious health risk for men. In a nationally representative study of more than 17,000 U.S. men, those who ate more ultra-processed ...

Vitamin C Won’t Prevent Most Colds, but It May Do One Small Thing

Aug. 27, 2026 The belief that huge doses of vitamin C can ward off colds was popularized more than 50 years ago by Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling. Since then, larger studies have found that vitamin C does not prevent most people from catching a cold, although ...

A Mysterious Cosmic Hum May Come from 13-billion-year-old Dark Stars

Aug. 27, 2026 Today’s mysterious gravitational-wave background may preserve clues about how the Universe’s first supermassive black holes formed. Descendants of hypothetical Dark Stars could be responsible for a major portion of the signal, offering a ...

Scientists Switch on a Strange New Form of Magnetism in an Ultrathin Material

Aug. 27, 2026 Scientists have found a surprising way to potentially switch on an unusual form of magnetism in ruthenium dioxide, a material that normally appears nonmagnetic. When the material was made into an ...

324-million-year-old Fossil Reveals How Insects Conquered Land

Aug. 27, 2026 Ancient fossils suggest insects conquered land through a long amphibious phase rather than making an abrupt jump from water to dry ground. A newly identified 324-million-year-old species still carried paddle-like abdominal limbs, revealing an ...

Smart Nanoparticles Light Up Brain Cancer and Destroy What Surgery Misses

Aug. 27, 2026 Scientists created smart nanoparticles that can both illuminate hidden glioblastoma cells during surgery and destroy microscopic cancer left behind afterward. In mice, the treatment prevented recurrence and led to 100% survival at 60 days, though it ...

Scientists Discover a Brain “Brake” That Can Shut Down Chronic Pain

Aug. 27, 2026 Researchers discovered a brain-based “brake” that can shut down chronic nerve pain in mice by calming an overactive pain circuit. Targeting this system more precisely could one day lead to powerful pain relief without affecting opioid receptors ...

Scientists May Have Finally Caught “Empty” Space Changing Light

Aug. 26, 2026 A magnetar with an astonishingly powerful magnetic field may have revealed a quantum effect predicted by Werner Heisenberg nearly 90 years ago. Its light shows signs that supposedly empty space is altering how the light travels, potentially ...

NASA Just Used Satellites and Debris to Navigate Without GPS

Aug. 26, 2026 NASA has successfully tested a system that allows satellites to navigate without GPS by using other spacecraft and debris as landmarks in orbit. In just three days, FALCON also improved the known orbits of more than 200 space objects completely ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:09am EDT

Scientists May Have Found a Shortcut to Calorie Restriction’s Anti-Aging Benefits

Aug. 26, 2026 Moderate calorie restriction lowered an immune protein called C3 that appears to help drive chronic inflammation as the body ages. Blocking the same ...

190-Year-Old DNA Reveals a Hidden Pangolin Species

Aug. 26, 2026 DNA from a nearly 190-year-old museum specimen has helped scientists confirm a distinct Himalayan pangolin species hiding in plain sight in Nepal and northern India. The discovery could give ...

Manhattan-Sized Ice Island Breaks Off Greenland’s Petermann Glacier

Aug. 26, 2026 A Manhattan-sized ice island has broken away from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier after years of growing fractures weakened its floating ice tongue. Scientists expect two more huge sections could ...

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Is Ready to Hunt Thousands of Alien Worlds

Aug. 26, 2026 NASA’s Roman Space Telescope is now enclosed inside its Falcon Heavy fairing and nearly ready for launch. Its mission could uncover thousands of exoplanets while helping scientists investigate dark ...

One Asteroid Strike May Explain Two Mysteries of Mars’ Moon Deimos

Aug. 26, 2026 A single asteroid impact may explain two of Deimos’s most puzzling features: its huge southern depression and unusually smooth, dusty surface. Simulations suggest a roughly 320-meter asteroid ...

Childhood Trauma May Leave a Lasting “scar” Inside Brain Cells

Aug. 26, 2026 Early-life stress may physically alter how DNA is packaged in the brain, leaving stress-related genes primed to activate more easily years later. In mice, researchers were able to block this effect, ...

Your Genes May Decide Whether a Low-Carb Diet Sends Cholesterol Soaring

Aug. 25, 2026 A low-carb diet may raise LDL cholesterol much more sharply in people who are genetically predisposed to high cholesterol, particularly when they consume lots of saturated fat. The findings could ...

Three Forgotten Kings Could Rewrite the History of Ancient Assyria

Aug. 25, 2026 Three forgotten Assyrian kings may have been hiding in plain sight for more than 2,700 years. By piecing together clues from tablets, inscriptions, and an ancient statue, researchers argue that these ...

Your Brain May Not Actually “make” Decisions

Aug. 25, 2026 A neuroscientist is challenging the idea that the brain contains a central system that actually “makes” our decisions. What we experience as choosing may instead emerge from the continuous ...

Forces Deep Inside Earth Helped Antarctica Freeze Before the Arctic

Aug. 25, 2026 Scientists may have solved the mystery of why Antarctica froze millions of years before the Arctic. Slow-moving waves deep inside Earth gradually lifted East Antarctica, building mountains and a high ...

Bird Flu Is Spreading. Your Backyard Feeder Could Make It Worse

Aug. 24, 2026 Backyard bird feeders could become unexpected hotspots for H5N1 as Australia’s bird flu outbreak spreads, bringing species together in ways that rarely occur naturally. Experts say stopping feeding ...

NASA Is About to Launch a Powerful New Eye on the Universe

Aug. 24, 2026 NASA’s Roman Space Telescope has been cleared for final launch preparations ahead of a targeted August 30 liftoff aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy. The powerful new observatory will probe cosmic ...

Trump to Award Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Artemis II Astronauts

Aug. 24, 2026 The Artemis II crew will receive the Congressional Space Medal of Honor after becoming the first humans in more than 50 years to travel beyond the Moon. Their 10-day Orion mission also carried them ...

Depression May Shut Down the Brain’s Ability to Make New Neurons

Aug. 25, 2026 A major study found that adults with depression show disrupted production of new neurons in the hippocampus, potentially weakening the brain’s ability to separate new experiences from painful ...

Experimental Compound Helps Burn Fat Without Muscle Loss

Aug. 23, 2026 A decades-old compound may point to a new way of treating obesity by making the body burn more energy rather than simply reducing appetite. In mice, TOFA increased energy use by as much as 18%, ...

A Hidden “on Switch” in Human DNA Has Finally Been Decoded

Aug. 23, 2026 Researchers have used AI to uncover the DNA signature of a key genetic “switch” involved in turning genes on. After analyzing about 500,000 DNA sequences, the model identified the initiator in ...

JWST Finds Early Galaxies May Be 4 Times More Massive Than Thought

Aug. 22, 2026 Astronomers using JWST have discovered that massive early galaxies contain far more small, faint stars than expected. That hidden population could make some of these galaxies three to four times more ...

Scientists Find Hidden “highways” Guiding Animal Evolution

Aug. 25, 2026 A sweeping analysis of thousands of animal genomes suggests that chromosomes do not evolve randomly but instead follow a limited number of irreversible “evolutionary highways.” These one-way ...

Physicists Create a Tiny “Big Bang” With Surprisingly Small Atomic Nuclei

Aug. 23, 2026 Researchers at CERN have created microscopic versions of the early Universe by colliding surprisingly small atomic nuclei at nearly the speed of light. The collisions produced quark-gluon plasma, the ...

Black Holes Keep Tearing These Stars Apart, but They Survive

Aug. 23, 2026 Astronomers have found stars that repeatedly skim past supermassive black holes, surviving each encounter while producing a new burst of light. In some systems, those flares mysteriously fade with ...

NASA Finds Earth Microbes Could Survive on the Moon

Aug. 25, 2026 NASA scientists found that microbes brought by astronauts could survive in cold, shadowed niches around the Moon’s South Pole, potentially complicating future searches for pristine lunar chemistry. ...

This Common Vitamin Was Linked to 13% Better Cognitive Scores

Aug. 23, 2026 Older adults with mild cognitive impairment and sleep problems who took at least 5,000 IU of vitamin D daily scored more than 13% higher on a cognitive test than those taking none. The preliminary ...

A Lost Mega-Cliff May Explain the Grand Canyon’s Missing Billion Years

Aug. 20, 2026 A colossal cliff system created as the supercontinent Rodinia broke apart may have exposed the heart of the Grand Canyon nearly a billion years before the Colorado River carved it. The ancient ...

A SpaceX Rocket Smashed Into the Moon — NASA Just Revealed the Crater

Aug. 20, 2026 A discarded SpaceX Falcon 9 stage crashed into the Moon on Aug. 5, leaving behind a newly formed crater about 60 feet wide. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured detailed images showing ...

Scientists Say the Human Family Tree May Need a Major Rewrite

Aug. 20, 2026 The human family tree may be due for a major rewrite. Researchers argue that Australopithecus and Paranthropus should be folded into the genus Homo because new fossils have blurred many of the traits ...

16 Mummies and a Dog Reveal a Hidden Order Inside an Ancient Egyptian Tomb

Aug. 19, 2026 A tomb in Egypt’s Theban Necropolis reveals a surprisingly organized story of burial, reuse, and changing beliefs spanning hundreds of years. Researchers found 16 mummified people, the remains of ...

Hidden Magnetism Inside Atoms May Explain Mysterious Gamma Rays

Aug. 21, 2026 For decades, scientists have puzzled over why certain atomic nuclei unexpectedly produce large numbers of low-energy gamma rays. A new experiment traced the effect to magnetic changes inside the ...

A Strange New Quantum Droplet Can Hold Itself Together

Aug. 21, 2026 Two very different types of quantum particles may be able to form stable droplets that hold themselves together, challenging decades of conventional thinking. The prediction could soon be tested ...

This Total Solar Eclipse Looked Strangely Golden — Here’s Why

Aug. 20, 2026 Spain’s total solar eclipse delivered an unexpected sight: a corona glowing gold instead of its usual pearly white. Because the Sun was setting, its light passed through more atmosphere, while ...

Researchers Reveal Deeper Workings of Brain’s Information Hub

Aug. 19, 2026 The brain has a remarkably flexible system for handling uncertainty and changing situations. Researchers found that the frontoparietal cortex constantly shifts how it communicates with other brain ...